Getting out and living life

Whew, the last couple of years have certainly been nothing I ever suspected, and I can't say I'm sorry to see them gone.  While there were many gifts from the covid years; this extraverted, travel loving, party going soul, found it a long and often tough road.  Soooooooooo.......  

I'm ready to live life and have some fun!  I think that finding joy is what it is all about (more so now than ever).  So here is how I'm locating it with my hardhat on and ready for adventure.  

First up, right after returning from Spain, a dear friend Karyn texted the WEG's to see if anyone would like to use a couple of tickets to see Diversity.  You don't know who that is, REALLY, okay, so neither did I.  But I started googling and found it to be something that was right up my alley.  I got my date all situated and off we went.  

This was my first trip to the Kings Theatre in Glasgow and I was pumped.  This is a treat as I've been wanting to go to this theatre for ages.  

It did NOT disappoint!!!!  

It was so fun to meet Karyn's mum and to hang out for a while before the show.  I didn't even care how it went, as I was out and enjoying life.  

And then it started....

and BLOODY HELL - it was beyond brilliant!

It was some of the best dancing, and creativity, all wrapped up in a powerful message, that I have ever experienced.  I seriously walked out a changed person.  

I must say, you all should watch Diversity on Youtube, it is so incredible!  They won Britains Got Talent in 2012, and have risen to super stardom since.  And they deserve every minute of the fame.  

Thanks Karyn - it was (to use my overused American phrase) A W E S O M E !!!!!

Next up was an American Women in Glasgow meet up!  So exciting to get together with new people and hear their stories of how they got to the land of fresh air, no mass shootings, whiskey, rolling hills, castles, bagpipes and kilts.  

Mary is my American cat friend who started this group, and I just love hanging out and finding things in our own backyard.  We were off to Pollok Country Park.  It's massive, right here in Glasgow and for any of you thinking of visiting, it is a must!  

The Burrell Collection is housed in the Park.  It is a massive collection (9000 items) of a shipping magnate of Glasgow named Burrell of course.  

Mary

Degas, Cezanne, Manet, and the list goes on.

Rodin, the thinker in miniature.

It's a new build, but elegantly done!

Pollok Park is 360 acres and is a belter!  This 'house' was owned by the Maxwell family, which was a family of 3, that had 46 servants.  Now that would be nice..........

I don't know if this is the front or back of the house

But this is what it leads to

My favorite room, the library.

Front?

Reminiscent of 44 Fitz.....but much grander!

and the walled gardens were to die for.

with wee paths leading everywhere

Not only did we meet some lovely American/Scottish women and made new friends, but we even got to pet some Highland Cows.  Now seriously, it can't get much better than this.  (unless you get tickets to Diversity, do that first, and then this.....). 

a wee baby

don't you love the hair!!!  

Then to wrap up this week with a game night hosted by the lovely Effie!  Boy did we have jolly good fun, with lots of laughter, sugar, and companionship.  

Gru won pass the buck, but we won't talk about his Guessture skills!  

Hugo

She made baked Alaska, who does that?  It was phenomenal!

I have to say, I'm loving life and I hope you are too, because why not, it's too short not too.     

the celtic cow lady

Kitty

and here is Rafe, my date!  

I'll

end

with 

this

It's actually 26 years ago in Scotland...

just saying......

 

The birthplace of Picasso

 Hello all it is me Jackson coming to you live from Malaga, Spain. This blog is about our short trip we took to Spain and the cool things we did. We flew out late on a Thursday night so our first full day was on Friday. We found our air bnb right in the middle of Malaga. Everything is pretty close together so we were staying basically right in the middle of Malaga. On Friday, the first thing we did is visited this popular market nearby that had every type of food inside. It had fish markets, meat markets, all sorts of fruit, olives, nuts, etc. We got some fruit juice, dried coconut and almonds inside.

The next thing we did was visit this cool huge church that was really close to our air bnb. It is called the Catedral de la Encarnación de Málaga. It is a catholic church and is sometimes just called the Malaga Cathedral. It was built between 1528 and 1782. It is very big and has a roof that we got to climb on also. 

There was a great view from the roof top to see the rest of the city. 

After we visited the cathedral we went on to the Castillo de Gibralfaro. This castle is connected to el alcazaba which is a fortress. The castle is an 8th century Moorish palace built before the Romans came. It is on a huge hill and theres great views of the ocean from the top, and there are walls around it that go down the hill to connect to the alcazaba so it looks clearly like a fortress on a hill. We had to take a long climb up the mountain to get to the top which took a while. 

Once we got to the top we were able to walk along the walls of the fortress and see great views of the entire city of Malaga. 

There was a small cafe at the top so we had a rest and had some refreshments then headed back down the steep pathway. We also saw this cool squirrel with fluff on his ears. 

We walked back to our air bnb but we first visited the beach. We passed this huge cube made of different colors of glass.

Saturday:

On Saturday we planned to go to the Alcazaba. We first found this really great lunch restaurant close to our neighborhood. We got these toast with avocado and salmon and eggs. They were very good and the smoothies were great also.

We then walked down to the A;cazaba. It was easier to climb than the castle we went to the day before. On the outside of the Alcazaba was an old roman theatre. 

This one looked more like a fortress but it had some nice rooms and gardens on the inside.

We then took a bus about 20 minutes to the Malaga Botanic Garden. In 1855, 2 members of Malagas rising bourgeois class got married: Jorge Loring and Amalia Heredia. They planned the creation of the gardens and ordered a bunch of different plants from all over the world. There was a ton of stuff to see it was a huge garden. It even had some buildings and a house in the middle of the gardens. 

This is a mini museum we ran into in the gardens. It is very small but very cool. 

This is a cool very large stone bench!

We walked on a viewing path where we could see over the trees of the garden and back down onto the city. We came to this nice rectangular pond and podium area. There were even small fish and turtles in the pool.

They even had bamboo!

This is the area where there are a lot of different types of cactus. 

These are some cool purple leafs. They look like purple flowers but the leafs are actually just very purple somehow. 

I also found this HUGE lemon on a lemon tree. I climbed a lemon tree and grabbed the biggest lemon I could find. It was as large as a cantaloupe. It was the largest lemon I had ever seen in real life. Bigger than my hand!

We took the bus back into the city and went to a restaurant called Mamuchis. It had a lot of different kind of food from Mexican to Thai. Also the decorations were very bright and cool looking. 

I got some Tamales and a chicken thai curry that was recommended. The Tamales were good but the curry was amazing. My Mom got an eggplant mushroom and goat cheese dish. It was also very delicious. Best meal so far.

For dessert I got a mango sorbet which was pretty good. On the walk home the town was packed with people out at the restaurants and bars. 

Sunday:

Today we decided to take a bus to a nearby city called Nerja. It is a small beach city with mountains behind it. We took a bus there in the morning and it took about 90 minutes. We got there around noon and then went to a beachside restaurant for lunch and got some Paella. The restaurant we were at was famous for its Paella and it was very delicious. We saw them making the Paella in these really large cast iron pans over an open fire. We had a tuna salad along side that.

After we ate we walked along the Burriana beach and looked for seats but they were all taken. Luckily I brought my hammock and we set it up in between 2 palm trees on the beach. 

My Mom sat in the hammock and I went off on a long walk along the beaches. I was trying to find a place to rent a jet ski and ride it around but the place I was looking for was not open when I got there. I did see a lot of cool shops, lookout points and small beaches on my walk. I stopped at a couple of the beaches and found this one cool spot in between 2 small beaches where I went for a swim. The water was quite cold but very nice. 

I then went back to the hammock and hung out for around 90 minutes while my Mom went on a walk. We stayed in Nerja until around 6:30 PM. We caught the bus back to Malaga and got back around 8 PM. 

END

Thanks Jackson - This is a good representation so far, but you forgot about Picasso!  He was born here and they celebrate that fact all over the city.  He lived here until he was 10.  The other thing about Malaga, is there are almost 30 museums, not all about Picasso, but still a stunning amount.  

PS.  IF you made it this far, Malaga came up because at M&S where J works, part time, they were after him to take vacation time.  WHAT?!?  He's only part time.  I was gobsmacked!  He has only been there since late January.  Jackson told me that they have been after him to take vacation a month or so ago too.  I really couldn't believe it.  Then he told me that this is paid vacation.  Seriously?!?!  

I love this country!